Faltering and Flying
by RedKetchup
Summary: Straw Hat takes steps like he's soaring, and Law doesn't know if he can keep up.


Some spoilers, so be warned.

* * *

It's through a splotchy inkiness, a type made up of being unconscious and wakeful, that Law feels the prodding.

His eyes creep open a slit, not enough to distinguish anything, but enough to let some light into his darkened vision. The pressure that's nudging his skull, a rhythmic _taptaptap_, reminds him to piece himself together and find his bearings.

He's settled into the concrete, body aching and on a buzz. That much he can tell. When he breathes, his chest - _heavy with a beating heart again_ - constricts. He feels the broken bones and bruised organs there, like every part of him is cracked glass full of fissures and scars.

There's blood. It's caked in the creases of his clothes, on his skin, and across all of Dressrosa. It melds together with the stench of gunpowder, making a perfume. Salt and sunflowers are the aftertaste.

"Nah, Torao? Are you awake?"

Law's eyelids twitch, fighting to open. His lips are blistered, and he doesn't know if he can make words yet. Whoever spoke will have to wait.

The drumming on his head continues. "Torao~!"

"Straw Hat-ya," he utters, his eyelids rising as he recognizes the voice.

He sees sky first. The edges of purple that are fading into a redder hue tell him that it's close to dawn. Probably. He stays pressed to the ground, letting the lingering spots of grey in his vision disappear. The rapping persists.

Straw Hat's face pops into existence, hanging upside down just above his own. Law strains his neck back. It looks like Straw Hat's in no better state than he is. Bruises and dried blood are all over the side of his face. One of his eyes are puffy.

"You're awake," he says.

Law flexes his jaw. "Stop poking me."

The _taptaptap_ slows. Straw Hat's fingers stay on his head, though.

"You're fluff-hat is over there." He takes a moment to raise his head and gesture over somewhere.

Law tilts his head to look. He can't see anything among the debris. It must be behind the crumpled pillars of the palace, he muses, but then his awareness spikes in an instant. _The palace_?

Straw Hat must realize what Law's thinking, what with that abnormal keenness of his, because in an instant his face splits into a grin, the bruised side quivering with the pain of it. "We move that way, now, right?"

Law stares blankly, his nerves sparking like they're full of electricity. "What?"

Pulling back, Straw Hat rocks on his heels. He looks past Law's prone body, out to the sprawling view below the palace grounds. Law looks as well, seeing the columns of smoke of burning buildings and the gaping craters in the ground. Dressrosa is still awake, merely slowing into a post-exhaustion after the carnage. It means that Law must not have been out for long.

Means that the Donquixote Family has fallen only hours, maybe moments, ago.

_Doflamingo has lost._

"We move that way," Straw Hat repeats, grinning at the destruction below, "Because it's not over yet, right?"

_Corazon, look. Look at what we've done._ "What are you saying?"

There's a shift, like the air has been thickened. Law looks back to Straw Hat, and the grin is gone. Instead his eyes are burning, alight with force that raises the hairs on Law's arms. This is the man that was in the auction house two years ago, the one who defied the world - _again_ - and ravaged the Celestial Dragon's face.

If Law were a lesser man, he'd be shaken. Instead, like all those years ago, he's stupefied into watching what will unfold.

"We're not done, yet. This was the first step of your plan-thingy, right? We move out to the sea, now. We step ahead, yeah?"

He can only stare, because Doflamingo has only just fallen, and this guy is ready for the next move. Didn't he see the importance of what just happened? Doflamingo is defeated. Done. He's got nothing left. Wrecked. They've won. They've beaten-

He doesn't realize that he is saying it all aloud until he goes to take a breath, the words leaving his mouth like bullets. His eyes widen, blood pounding in his veins.

Straw Hat doesn't say anything, just watches.

Law heaves a breath, unable to stop. "After all that he's done, all of the people that he ruined, he's been punished. It's all over-"

"No."

The words jam before they leave Law's mouth, startled away by Straw Hat's interruption. The man's namesake is on his head, looking like it hasn't been battered at all, and hiding his eyes with the brim.

"No. It's not all over," he says, mouth twisted into a hard smile, "We move that way, now."

He points forward, past the havoc of the island and even further. He's pointing to the growing orange on the horizon, to the seagulls that make spots on the sky. Pointing at the sea, lapping at the shore.

"We continue on. Into the New World."

The rush in Law's head dulls, and Straw Hat's fingers start tapping again. He can only stare at this man, the pirate striving for the One Piece, and _know_ that he'll never fully understand him. Law wouldn't mind learning what he can, though.

_Corazon, the Will of D isn't something simple, is it?_

He closes his eyes, letting his fatigue anchor him to the ground. "Good to see that you remember the plan, considering that you didn't follow most of it."

"It was too bor~ing," Straw Hat pouts. "Besides, I had to get Ace's fruit."

Ah, that explains it. "What happened to it?"

He hums. "Someone else got it. Y'see, my brother's here."

Questions forming. Again. Instead of asking, Law says, "We should look at our wounds."

Straw Hat laughs. "Yeah, you look like a mess."

"You look worse, idiot."

"Do not!"

He doesn't bother arguing, choosing to let the beginnings of a new dawn wash over him.

"Nah, Torao?"

"What?"

Straw Hat doesn't answer right away, choosing to thrum his fingers in Law's hair for awhile.

"Let's go on an adventure," he says, finally.

Law brings an arm across his face, sighing. The corner of his mouth edges up slightly.


End file.
